friends

One morning I awoke to the ringing sound of my phone.

"Dude, did I wake you up?", came the tinny voice. A voice that I instantly recognized as that of my friend Charlie, an old co-worker that still drank with me sometimes.

"Yeah." I tried my best to say as few words as possible so the conversation could end sooner and I could get back to sleep.

"Sorry about that."

"Its alright."

"I was calling to see if you could give me a ride to the airport."

Ahh, he wanted a ride to the airport. A ride to the airport, which was 30 minutes away, to a man that never helped with gas money. I did not want to do it, all I really wanted to do was go back to sleep. But a better person in me believed in charity.

"Uhhh. I guess I could do that."

"Well, I know you work the midnight shift and all, so if you want to go back to sleep, I'll just get a cab."

Yes a cab. That would have been perfect. But I had to ask, just out of curiosity.

"How much does the cab cost?"

"Like 30 bucks." He said with a tone to emphasize how that was ridiculous. Thirty bucks was a lot of money. I'd would have felt like a real douche if I had not taken him at that point.

"Yeah, fuck it, I'll take you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah,...because that's what friends are for."

At that moment I realized I just said the lyrics to a song. I think Charlie on the other end realized that I had just said some lyrics too. I thought about it for a moment and remembered that Stevie Wonder, Elton John, and Dionne Warrick sang the song. The song started to play in my head at the same time.

"Dude, I think that is a lyric to a song."

"Yeah, I know. Not a lyric though, thats the chorus."

"That's what friends are for."

"Yep....


....I'll just get a taxi."


"Yeah, you do that."

Charlie hung up and that was the last time we ever talked to each other. He died three years later in a horrible plane crash.

Unable to get back to sleep, I got dressed in my workout clothes and ran 20 miles. Trying to outrun an anxiety that followed me. Why was I anxious? I did not know. When I got home, I was thirsty. I needed water, but I drank whiskey. Its just one of those things that you do. I did not know why it was that I needed a drink, I just needed one. After a quick shower, I went to work.

"Walt! What are you singing?"

I looked up and there was Martha. The M.I.L.F. I looked at her breast and then at her face. She said I was singing. I had no idea that I was singing.

"I wasn't singing."

"Yes you were."

"No I wasn't."

"Yes you were and I think that it's that song with Elton John and Dionne..."

As Martha spoke I began thinking. I was definitely sure that I was not singing aloud, let alone, that song. However that song had been stuck in my head all day. Perhaps I was singing, because how else could Marhta know about my tenuous relationship with that song. I concluded that I must have been singing. But before I confessed, I remembered that her and Charlie was best friends when he worked here. Some people in the office even thought there something else going on besides workplace friendliness. Martha was married with kids, but she was a slut. Everyone here knew it. He must have told her. And I was not going to play this game.

"No I wasn't singing that song. So go fuck off. And tell Charlie 'very funny'."

The whole room was looking at us. Martha had a shocked expression on her face but she was real good at acting. I looked at the whole room with people staring at me. That Charley was a sly devil, he must have told the whole office!

"Ha Ha everyone. Charlie must have told all of you too. That rascal! Do you all really want to hear me sing? Sure." What else did I have to lose, they were all laughing at me anyways. So I sang the most heart wrenching rendition of "Thats what friends are for" in front of the whole office. All parts, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Gladys, and D-War. When I was finished I looked around and saw tears in some colleague's eyes. And slowly but assuridly applause came in abundance.




Many years later, after I lost my job at the power plant, I got evicted from my apartment. I lived off of unemployment for a while, but could never really find another job. These days, I fancy cheap alcoholic beverages and sing 'That's What Friends are For' over and over and over and over, as I walk the streets.